This music by Tobias Hume for solo Lyra Viol often dances, often sings - but the songs aren't for the throat, and the dances aren't for the feet. They're for the soul. Maybe that's a consequence of Susanne Heinrich's extraordinary ability to create dreams out of sounds.

You know, this music is really timeless - it could be 17th century or 21st century. It is both austere and beautiful. It made me think of John Cage's "The Harmony of Maine"

There's one place where Susanne Heinrich makes a major error of judgement. In the booklet she says that this music isn't capable of sustaining a concert - best sampled in small doses in the living room. Not true! It would make an excellent lunchtime concert. The variety of mood and viol effects is astonishing.

Two recordings of solo lyra viol music by Tobias Hume, played by Jordi Savall. The former appeared in 2004, the latter more than 20 years before. Apart from a couple of numbers they contain the same music. Interpretively they are very different.

Savall the viola player in 2004 has qualities which I've learned to associate more with Paolo Pandolfo - beautiful phrasing always played lightly, the pieces sound as though they've been blown in on the wind; delicate in a way which seems not quite to belong to this world. He's helped by a very special sounding instrument, a bass viol by Barak Norman 1697.

The earlier recording is the viol analogue of James McCracken singing Vesti la Giubba - Jordi finds big tunes and belts them out with great physicality and not much nuance or delicatesse, and that can be a very diverting experience when you're in the mood.

Savall 2004 lacks the extraordinary depth of fantasy of Susanne Heinrich, the sense of making dreams. In a way that makes what he does easier to listen to because it's less disturbing, less psychologically intense.

Joseph Payne plays some Bull, Byrd and Gibbons, with a little Farnaby, Dowland and Tisdale. A CD called The Queenes Command.

I have to say I think this is a sensational recording. I first came across it when I was listening to different performances of Bull's In Nomine 9 and I was bowled over. Then I came across it again when listening to performances of Farnaby's Woody Cock Variations, and it seemed so much more inspired than all the others. Now I've heard the whole thing, and I think it's all bloody marvellous.

The style is inspired like stylus phantasticus almost, it's as if Payne is on an improvisational inspirational roll. He uses strong clear harpsichords and virginal. As in Hans Davidsson's Buxtehude, I think we have a case of a performer really being inspired by the task of making sense of the music on his chosen instruments. There's nothing generic about these performances.

The lovely CD by Jordi Savall, which is devoted to solo music for Lyra Viol, is dedicated mostly to William Cockrine and Alfonso Ferrabosco ( fils). The Lyra Viol is made for playing chordal music, contrapuntal music, and both composers make ample use of that capacity. The music of both composers is lyrical and austere at the same time. Savall plays mostly with his characteristic organistic sound: long deep sustained notes.

This is music far removed from the dance floor. These are abstractions, at least as played by Jordi, whose style here resembles his Demachy and his Gibbons. Once again I can't help but wonder whether Bach was influenced by Lyra Viol in the last three suites for cello.

It's strange that the summits of English viol music should come right at the very start, with Christopher Tye, and right at the very end, with Henry Purcell. I would not be surprised to learn that the latter took the former as his main inspiration and model.

Two things are gobsmacking in Tye's music: freedom, and variety. His contrapuntal imagination, and his sense of how to vary textures is really impressive. God alone knows who Tye took as his models - I bet there was an impressive lost unwritten tradition of quasi-improvised viol playing in Britain.

Maybe the strangest thing about this music is that it's so emotionally enigmatic - are we faced with deep deep sadness, or deep deep joy? I cannot say. If I had not read Wittgenstein I would say that it expresses things that words can not.

There are only two substantial recordings of Tye - Savall and Spirit of Gambo. Both are impressive. Savall is lyrical and rapt, as you would expect. But he's not very colourful. SoG is brighter, more "awake", more articulated, and each viol seems to have a more distinct personality. I have a strong preference for Gambo, but as with all these things you have to suck it and see.

Mutatis mutandis for his Farnaby. He produces sounds from his harpsichord which no one had made before, the rhythms can turn from ferocious to oneiric on the blink of an eye; there's playfulness aplenty - boisterous humour, and horse play.

Yes, and Payne also recorded the In Nomine no. IX on organ for Vox in a late 1960es 3 LP Fitzwilliam Virginal Book excerpts Box, his recording debut I think. IMO it is even more noble than the Naxos recording.

No, neither the CD item I own nor the original LP release, which I have parted with indicates IIRC the organ. I suppose, it is a modest sized modern organ. It has got some lovely principal and flute stops.

No, neither the CD item I own nor the original LP release, which I have parted with indicates IIRC the organ. I suppose, it is a modest sized modern organ. It has got some lovely principal and flute stops.

I can upload it for you, if necessary.

No, I have it, in fact I like it. The organ sounds modest but the harpsichord sounds huge!

No, I have it, in fact I like it. The organ sounds modest but the harpsichord sounds huge!

I recall from the text of the LP release (IIRC there was a picture of Payne sitting at the instrument, and the name of the maker was written on it), that the harpsichord was built by Eric Herz, a revival kind of instrument like Goff and Pleyel, I suppose. Even Anthony Newman has used Herz' instruments for recordings.

Martin Souter does not seek to thrill or impress or entertain. He uses very little rubato, his basic tempos are often slow and there is little variation in tempo, the registrations are sober. The voicing is transparent and quite lively. He creates tension and release despite the complete absence of exuberance, the music is not dead. I'm not sure how he does this - I think it has to do with the way the textures change, the voices accumulate. His style is studied. As a listening experience it is both sweet and stimulating: the adrenaline never flows but he woos you.

Farnaby is treated in the same way as Byrd, who is treated in the same way as Bull. I particularly enjoyed the Byrd G minor Fantasia.

Derek Adlam plays Bull and Farnaby on a harpsichord, a muselar and an organ. I've been focussing on the harpsichord music. In general you could say that Adlam's harpsichord style is expansive, introspective, refined and serious. He is never flamboyant. He can drive a harpsichord to make it produce all sorts of delicate effects, and to make it tell an interesting story with the music.

The recital opens with the most beautiful, the most varied (emotionally, texturally) and the longest (over 19.5 mins.) performance of Bull's Walsingham Variations I've ever heard. It is a revelation. More dashing harpsichord performances I know may capture a spirit of anger, but they do not do justice to the epic quality in Bull's creation.

Farnaby's Woody Cock is successful for similar reasons. He lets the music breathe, and he gives each variation a distinctive character.

The recital ends with a harpsichord performance of Bull's In Nomine 9, which was my only disappointment, since I felt it wasn't as noble and inspired as Joseph Payne's harpsichord performance. Of course I may have been just tired by this point, and I'll revisit it.

I just listened to two pieces by Dowland played by Lindberg (BIS) and O'Dette - the pavan P 18 and The Dream P 75.

Lindberg gets less colour and warmth from his instrument than O'Dette, and the performance is less free with ornamentation and arpeggiation. I would say that O'Dette finds a greater emotional range too, and O'Dette's sound has a greater sense of room ambience.

Lindberg comes closer to my view of what this sort of music sounds like, in particular in his mixture of expression and control. I prefer Lindberg to O'Dette.

In particular I found Lindberg infinitely more affecting than O'Dette in The Dream, where there's an unwanted extrovert quality, at least in so far as you can ever be extrovert on a lute! I thought Lindberg is intense, refined and deep.